Databases linking specific service types to location are of proven value whether of manually-searchable paper form or computerised and electronically searchable. A typical use might be to locate a plumber in a particular location for providing emergency repair services; another example is to find shops in a certain area that sell sports goods.
The compilation and upkeep of such databases requires substantial effort if effected by individual enquiry to local service providers (generally, but not exclusively, local businesses). The advent of the internet and the proliferation of commercial websites has meant that much information about available services is accessible if only one knew where to look. To deal with this situation, programs generally referred to as “crawlers” have been evolved for automatically searching the web to find and classify new web sites. This classification can be done by looking for key words in the text of the web pages of the site or on the basis of meta information contained in meta tags embedded in the web pages. Operating in this way, the web crawlers can build up large databases that are searchable for particular words or phrases; as a result, these databases can be used to link location and services offered by businesses at those locations (for example, to find a plumber in Bristol, UK, the words “Bristol” and “plumber” can be input as search terms with the search being restricted to domain names in the “co.uk” domain. Whilst to date this linking has been generally rather haphazard, as more structured techniques are adopted for identifying information within web pages (in particular, the use of XML), substantial improvements can be expected in the ability of web crawlers to link location and various types of locally-available services. However, it will be appreciated that using a web crawler will only capture services offered by entities that have internet-accessible web sites which, of course, rules out many smaller businesses.
In the future, it can be expected that businesses will not only offer their services through internet websites, but will also use short-range communication means to provide information to passers-by carrying suitable mobile devices. A number of technologies exist for the short range communication of information to and between mobile devices. These technologies include infra-red based technologies and low-power radio technologies (including, in particular, the recent “Bluetooth” short range wireless standard). Depending on the technology implementation, differing types of message propagation will be enabled including asynchronous message broadcast, and multicast and point-to-point duplex connections established after coordination and negotiation between communicating devices.
The information offered by businesses through these short range wireless (including IR) portals will generally correspond to that available on the website of the business provided such a website exists. However, it is likely that short-range wireless portals, requiring no governmental licensing and capable of installation by the business owner himself, could proliferate and become a major source of local service information that is not to be found on the web.
It is an object of the present invention to facilitate the capture and use of such information.